Black stuff with egg laying...

[countrygirl74]

Hello everyone,
The last egg one of our hens laid had a lot of black poo on it. She's just over 6 months old and started laying a couple weeks ago. All her eggs have been perfect from the very first one! She even laid a double-yolker recently and even in the middle of winter is laying most every day. This is the first time I noticed the all black poo. I don't know what the texture is as I only found it all dry, but it reminds me of black tar. There is more of the black droppings in the straw in the coop. Some of the droppings did have a trace of white, but just wondering if she is okay? There are no other weird symptoms - she seems to be eating, drinking and acting normal. I've just never seen such black poop!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Do they free range? What they eat affects their poo color. I gave mine beet greens and the next day there was red poop everywhere - I about had a heart attack until I realized that it was from the beets.

 

[countrygirl74]

Do they free range? What they eat affects their poo color. I gave mine beet greens and the next day there was red poop everywhere - I about had a heart attack until I realized that it was from the beets.

Yes, they do free range in a way... in a huge fenced garden area - I don't know what they could have gotten into as the garden is gone and cleaned up. However, I did find out that someone had thrown the fireplace ashes over the fence. I wonder if that could be it...